December 12, 2005

 

Argentina's 2005-06 soybean crop 70 percent planted

 

 

Argentina's farmers had planted 70 percent of the 2005-06 soybean crop by Thursday, the Agriculture Secretariat said Friday.

 

That puts the planting pace up from 64 percent a week ago but down a bit from 74 percent a year ago.

 

The annual pace is only slightly behind that of the previous year even though area is up more than 1 million hectares from last season.

 

Soybeans now account for about half of the planted area for all of Argentina's grain and oilseed crops, according to the Secretariat. Area has expanded rapidly in recent years because of soy's low production costs and high sales value in commodities markets.

 

Planted area is forecast at a record 15.11 million hectares in 2005-06, up from 14.4 million hectares previously. As of Thursday, farmers had sown 10,519,700 hectares of soybeans.

 

The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange has estimated planted area at 15.6 million hectares, up from 14.67 million hectares a year earlier.

 

The USDA has forecast Argentina's 2005-06 soybean output at a record 40.5 million tonnes, up from the previous record of 39 million tonnes a year ago.

 

 

Corn

 

Corn farmers had sown 79 percent of the 2005-06 crop by Thursday, lifting the planting pace from 76 percent a week ago. The pace is down from 86 percent a year earlier, mainly because climatic conditions this year have been much worse than they were a year ago.

 

The annual pace is down even though area is down 8.7 percent this season.

 

Poor weather is responsible for the slower planting pace while low prices and high production costs are responsible for a decrease in area.

 

Despite the bad weather, the corn crop in Buenos Aires Province is "developing very well in the vegetative state," the Secretariat said. "No sanitary problems have been observed."

 

Buenos Aires is home to more than a quarter of Argentina's corn production.

 

The Secretariat sees area at 3.055 million hectares, down from 3.348 million hectares a year earlier.

 

As of Thursday, farmers had planted 2,408,259 hectares.

 

The USDA has forecast Argentina's 2005-06 corn production at 17.3 million tonnes, down from 19.5 million tonnes in 2004-05.

 

The exchange has estimated planted area this season at 2.23 million hectares, compared with 2.63 million hectares a year earlier.

 

The exchange's estimate does not include corn grown strictly for use as animal feed.